A number of weeks ago I noticed an incredibly cheesey billboard by the side of the road on one of my rides and made a mental note to look it up. It looked like the sort of thing a mate might knock up in his lunch break on his computer, except that it was blown up to gigantic proportions. Of course, by the time I got home, tired, I forgot and since then it's been replaced by another advert after their funding presumably ran out. It's only now that I've seen the news (where have I been you ask?) that I remember that it said something about the 21st of May and something about "Family Radio" but it was the fact that whatever it was was "guaranteed by the Bible" that really caught my attention. Now I see that this is in response to an 89 year old man, Harold Camping, who believes that Jesus Christ will rise up on this day and "rapture" the true-believers to Heaven. Sounds quite pleasant but the question is, what happens to the true non-believers and will I have time to do my three hour cycle ride beforehand or not? I had to actually look up the word "rapture" to make sure my understanding of it was right - it's hardly a word you use everyday - how is it that there are so many words that are essentially religious duplicates of other, perfectly acceptable words (e.g., right / righteous, wrong / sin, etc.)?
I'm actually genuinely surprised that this prediction has gained any traction in conservative Spain: the Catholic Church is not really the sort of fickle Institution that would be given to such dabblings in clairvoyance. Or seen another way, it's not really in their interest for people to know that Harold Camping got the news before the Pope, who supposedly has a direct line to the Almighty One.
Well, I don't know about the end of the World but it's certainly true that the website where you can find out all about it has already collapsed. We're doomed I tell you! Doomed!
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